October 13, 2023
The Anti-Fraud Coalition (TAF or TAF Coalition) 23rd Annual Conference will be held October 18-20, 2023, in Washington, D.C. As in past years, WLC will be an active participant in the Conference both as a proud sponsor and with members speaking on important topics. As part of TAF Coalition (formerly known as Taxpayers Against Fraud), we couldn’t be more committed to combatting fraud, incentivizing integrity, and protecting and supporting whistleblowers under the False Claims Act and other whistleblower laws and programs.
WLC Attorney Erica Blachman Hitchings, a member of TAF’s President’s Council and Government Relations Committee, will speak in a plenary session addressing Every Case is a Part C Case Now: How Relators Can Help Stymie the Scourge of Fraud in the Medicare Advantage Space.
The panel will discuss Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) fraud and how to combat it using the False Claims Act. As a former Department of Justice fraud prosecutor who worked on the successful Sutter Health FCA case and now represents whistleblowers, Ms. Hitchings brings a unique perspective to the topic. Medicare Advantage fraud is one of the fastest growing areas of fraud, with some 50% of Medicare beneficiaries now covered by a Medicare Advantage plan rather than traditional Medicare.
Attendees will be given an overview of how capitated payment fraud has successfully been pled/settled, how to allege “fraud on the plan” schemes when it’s the Plan that is being defrauded, how to identify and plead non-risk adjustment fraud schemes by those in the Part C space, and review of the basic terminology and Part C rules that one needs to know and understand.
Ms. Hitchings will be joined on the panel by Eva Gunaskera, Tycko & Zavareei; Ed Crooke, Assistant Director, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division; and Sara Vann, Assistant Director, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Georgia Attorney General’s Office.
WLC Attorney Linda C. Severin will speak on a panel exploring the recent case law developing around the Anti-Kickback Statute, particularly with respect to causation and damages. The Anti-Kickback Statute has been the basis for many recent FCA recoveries and a hot topic among FCA practitioners.
Attorney Severin, who served as a criminal prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York prior to joining WLC, is superbly qualified to discuss the nuances and challenges of the interplay between the FCA and Anti-Kickback Statute which has both criminal and civil remedies associated with it.
Joining Ms. Severin on the panel will be Heidi Wendel, Wendel Law; Nicholas Hartmann, Lieff Cabrasar Heimann & Bernstein; and Eric Babbs, Assistant Attorney General, Connecticut Attorney General’s Office.
Paralegals are an integral part of whistleblower law firms, and they can be critical to the success of whistleblowers and their cases. On this panel, WLC’s experienced Advanced Certified Paralegal Kelly Shivery will share her knowledge and perspective on how a well-qualified paralegal, who knows the law and the unique challenges of FCA qui tam work, can help shepherd cases through the many phases of a qui tam action.
Ms. Shivery not only has extensive experience with FCA qui tam cases, but she is also a former Senior Arbitration Administrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and spent time with the State of Hawaii Attorney General’s Office doing similar work. She also holds an Advanced Paralegal Certification in both Alternative Dispute Resolution and E-Discovery. At WLC Ms. Shivery puts all of her experience to work in a variety of whistleblower cases.
Joining her on this panel are two other accomplished paralegals: Sylvia Vela, Kaplan Law Firm and Traci Smith of Morgan Verkamp.
As proud members of TAF Coalition since our founding in 2003, WLC can attest to TAF’s effectiveness on behalf of whistleblowers, the taxpayers, and others. We fully support TAF’s important mission to educate and empower whistleblowers and their attorneys to effectively use the federal False Claims Act and state false claims acts with their qui tam provisions, as well as other whistleblower programs.
WLC member Erica Blachman Hitchings has served on TAF’s President’s Council and Government Relations Committee since 2020. WLC founders Robert M. Thomas, Jr. and Suzanne E. Durrell were honored to receive TAF’s 2017 Whistleblower Lawyer of the Year Award. We look forward to continuing our support of TAF, and its important work on behalf of whistleblowers.
Whistleblower Law Collaborative LLC, based in Boston, devotes its practice entirely to representing clients nationwide in bringing actions under the federal and state whistleblower laws and programs, False Claims Acts, and other whistleblower programs.
If you are considering becoming a whistleblower or are aware of other types of fraud, contact us for a free, confidential consultation.